


A Radiant Heart

by merryghoul



Category: Sleepy Hollow (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Romance Novel, Body Horror, Demonic Possession, Demons, F/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-03
Updated: 2014-05-03
Packaged: 2018-01-21 17:35:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1558532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merryghoul/pseuds/merryghoul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ichabod Crane has pushed it too far this time. Gnawing and clawing at his soul are the demons he carried back from his quest into their land. Weak and exhausted, the dark witch gazes down a road at his only hope--a lone vehicle with blazing headlights. Desperate, he makes a mad dash for the light, and the striking woman illuminated in its wake.</p>
<p>Katrina Van Tassel senses him before she sees him. The good witch with emerald eyes and fiery red hair has never dabbled in dark magic. But one look at Ichabod turns her life upside down. Soon Ichabod is lured into his dangerous world...and his powerful arms. A few sultry kisses are not enough to save Ichabod from his demons--it's going to take some seriously potent sorcery. And they're running out of time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Radiant Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Summary adapted from [the back cover blurb from the Harlequin Nocturne novel _This Wicked Magic._](http://www.harlequin.com/storeitem.html?iid=27659&cid=2577)

There was something beyond the woods. Ichabod could sense it. He had to go to lights. The lights might be someone or something that could get rid of the demons inside of him.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. He was supposed to be leading men in the British Army, enforcing the laws of the Crown in New York. He was going to be the one to foil Isaac Sears, leader of the Sons of Liberty. And after Sears' defeat, he was going to go back to Oxford and teach until he was in his 30s. Then he would retire until his death.

Now he was displaced from his time, running towards lights. 

Maybe cowardice instead of bravery should've been the best approach to quelling the rebellion in the Colonies. 

 

Ichabod paid his tithe and joined the British Army when he first learned about the rebellion in the Colonies.

He never expected his captain to tell him to enlist souls in Purgatory. Ichabod was a professor of modern history and dark witchcraft at Oxford. Of course his captain would tell him to get reinforcement on a short notice in America. Purgatory was great for getting people that had died to fight for king and crown.

Ichabod had been to Purgatory before. He'd kept his distance, looking at the lost souls move in and out of the fields, disappearing into the trees.

_If I can get in the middle of a field in Purgatory, maybe I can enlist these souls,_ Ichabod thought.

Ichabod cast his favorite spell, one he had mastered while he was at Oxford: a wormhole spell. In moments, he was in Purgatory. He went through with his plan, going to the field in Purgatory to enlist lost souls to the British cause.

"Excuse me? I am Ichabod Crane, lieutenant in His Majesty's Army. I am seeking brave souls to fight against those who rebel against our empire." 

Ichabod got the reinforcements he wanted. Except the reinforcements were demons, not the lost souls of dead men. 

Ichabod tried to fight them off, but he failed. All of the demons in Purgatory crept into his body as he was recruiting them. 

History says the Battle of Golden Hill was aggravated when reinforcements came to the aid of soldiers captured by Isaac Sears and his men. What history doesn't tell you is that the demons Ichabod carried from Purgatory were those soldiers. 

After the Battle of Golden Hill happened, Ichabod decided to flee. The demons he had brought back to New York had harmed soldiers and civilians. This was not what Ichabod wanted or wanted to do at all.

Ichabod, an accomplished witch in England, fled the battle the only way he knew how: his wormhole spell.

Ichabod cast the spell and went through the wormhole, not knowing where he'd end up.

The next thing he knew, he was running towards a light.

 

Katrina Van Tassel stopped her car in the middle of the road leading up to Sleepy Hollow. She sensed something in the woods, something that needed the headlights of her car. Something that needed _her._ She stepped out of the car and waited by it, in case the thing needed her support.

She wasn't surprised when the thing staggered out of the woods. He moved as if a hive of bees was chasing him. But there weren't any bees chasing him. He was afflicted with something she didn't know anything about. Yet. 

She was surprised at the things the man--she knew it wasn't a thing anymore--wore. He was in a British officer's uniform. She guessed it was from the time of the American Revolution. The uniform was ripped and dirty. 

The man landed with a thud on the hood of her car.

Katrina went to the man. "Are you alright?"

"I thought this was some supernatural beast. I had no idea this beast was made of metal."

Katrina grabbed his right side to keep him from falling. 

Ichabod froze, but not because of the torment the demons were putting him under. This woman who commanded the metal beast he hurt himself on was _beautiful._ Her hair was fiery. Her eyes were like emeralds. Ichabod was certain he was in the real world, but in a time later than his. But this woman who had stopped for him seemed to be from another dimension, one that wasn't real.

Katrina looked at the man. If his hair was washed, it would've been chestnut brown. His blue eyes shone in the night. He seemed like the type of man she'd be interested in. But he was tormented. That was more important at the moment.

"I suppose you are here to save me," the man said.

Katrina nodded. "I'll help you in the car."

"The metal beast has an interior?"

 

Katrina drove Ichabod to her coven, the Sisterhood of the Radiant Heart. (Despite the coven's name, the coven invited both men and women to their order.) The white witches, who were used to working in solitude, weren't pleased that Ichabod was on their doorstep.

Ichabod grabbed Katrina's shoulders to steady himself. Katrina couldn't admit this, but she could sense that Ichabod was a strong man, despite the demons consuming him. And his arms felt great around her back.

Alfred Knopp, one of the witches, was the only witch that bothered to come up to the door of the coven. He was still dressed in his cassock; he had arrived to the Sisterhood after an evening service. 

"Why are you all backing up?" Katrina asked. "This man needs our help."

"Who is he?"

"His name is Ichabod Crane. He tried to use magic to cast out his demons, but he ended up in our time. And the demons are sapping his energy. If we don't treat him, the demons will consume him and he will die."

"I'm sorry, Katrina," Alfred said, "but I have to overrule you, even if you are our leader. You know we cannot treat him. It's dark magic."

"Together we stopped the Order of the Blood Moon from stopping the destruction of Sleepy Hollow."

"That was different. We were saving humanity from a coven out for its own means. Treating this man would be the coven serving your own purposes. What you want is the same thing the Order of the Blood Moon wanted—to use magic for selfish means, not for the good of all."

"What if the demons get out of Ichabod's body? What if they wreck havoc on Sleepy Hollow?"

"If and when the demons harm Sleepy Hollow, then we can help you. But we cannot help this man now or we will become like the Order of the Blood Moon. You and this man must leave the coven now."

Alfred slowly shut the door on Ichabod and Katrina.

"I am afraid your coven has sealed their fate on me," Ichabod said.

"No, don't say that. If I didn't want to save you, I wouldn't have stopped for you. If my coven doesn't want to help me, I'll cast the demons out myself."

"You do know I can help you?"

"You should rest, Ichabod. If not, you'll grow weaker than you already are. I'll find a way to save you."

 

Katrina looked through every spell book she owned. She went to the Sleepy Hollow public library and looked through every magic book she could find there. She tried every spell she could find. Nothing worked. 

It took a while, but Katrina forced Ichabod to bathe. It wasn't because she was a Quaker and she believed in cleanliness like her ancestors. It was because Ichabod smelled so bad. But it made sense; back in Ichabod's time certain parts of clothing and parts of the body were washed in Colonial America. Colonists (and the people living with them) didn't notice their body odor as much as people in modern day America did. And they didn't think too much about germs. 

So when Katrina fed Ichabod things like soup and bread, Katrina didn't feel like she had to run outside to escape Ichabod's putrid body odor. 

Katrina was feeding Ichabod soup when he said, "You have tried your best, Katrina." His voice was ragged from the demons eating at him. "I feel there is nothing you can do to save me from these demons. There is no white magic you can do alone to save me, and your coven refuses to see me. I will die a stranger in this time that is unfamiliar to me."

"Don't say that. I'll save you."

"I only regret that I did not smell like...what was the name of that scent of that soap you used on me, vanilla birthday cake?"

Katrina chuckled. "Yes, it was vanilla birthday cake. It's designed for women, not for men. I wasn't expecting any male lodgers in my home, Ichabod. I'm sorry."

"I never told you when my birthday was."

"It's supposed to smell like someone's birthday cake. You can use it even if it's not your actual birthday."

"Cake smells like this?"

"Oh, Ichabod." She looked into Ichabod's eyes. "I'll save you." 

She felt herself leaning into a kiss. Ichabod didn't oppose the kiss. 

As they kissed, Katrina felt something go into her mouth. Her tongue tasted sulfur. One of Ichabod's demons. She continued to kiss Ichabod and came up with a plan.

After they kissed, Katrina breathed out the demon her kiss had pulled away from Ichabod's body. She could still see rest of the demons moving under his skin.

Katrina nodded. "I think I know what I need to do to save you."

 

Katrina had Ichabod stand in front of a bare wall in her home. He was leaning on a branch that Katrina brought in from the forest. Ichabod was wearing his shirt and bloomers.

"Ichabod, can you still perform your wormhole spell? The one you used to come here?"

"I believe I can, Miss Van Tassel. I have always wanted to help you ever since I arrived here."

"You're going to perform your wormhole spell. I'm going to suck the demons out of you. I remember reading a vacuum spell in my books. If the vacuum spell works, your demons will disperse into various points in time and space. If it doesn’t, I'm guessing your organs will disperse into various points in time in space. Isn't that what you wanted? Well, the first thing, not the second?"

"Indeed. That is exactly what I wanted several days...years ago."

"You start first."

Even though he was weak, Ichabod projected a wormhole onto the bare wall. 

"Open your mouth."

Ichabod opened his mouth. 

Katrina directed her magic towards Ichabod's mouth. The vacuum funneled towards him. 

One by one, the remaining demons were sucked out of Ichabod's mouth, doomed to travel into times unknown through Ichabod's wormhole.

After the demons left his body, Ichabod collapsed. The wormhole closed. Katrina stopped her vacuum spell.

Katrina went over to Ichabod. 

"Are you okay?"

Ichabod stood up and tossed the stick aside. He gave Katrina his hand and helped her up.

"Miss Van Tassel, I have never felt better."

The two kissed.

"You can call me Katrina, Ichabod."

"All right. I have never felt better, _Katrina._ "

 

The first demon that came out of Ichabod's body found its way to Katrina's coven. The Sisterhood of the Radiant Heart fought off the demon, but they were unable to rid the coven of the creature.

Ichabod and Katrina arrived at the door of the Sisterhood. Alfred opened the door.

"We're still not helping this man, Katrina," Alfred said. "Even if he does have a new blue coat. And we have a problem of our own."

"I problem that I can solve, Mister..."

"Alfred Knopp."

"Mister Alfred Knopp. I am Ichabod Crane, formerly a lieutenant in the Royal Army in 1770, now a stranger in a new time. I know it was easy to dismiss me because of my former state, crippled by demons the Army sent me to retrieve. Mister Knopp, not only am I a lieutenant, I am also a practitioner of dark magic."

Ichabod made a wormhole in the sky. He grabbed the demon in the coven with his magic and flung it into the wormhole. The coven looked at him, then nodded and smiled in approval.

"And if you would allow me to do so, I would like to renounce all my ties to dark magic and become a member of the Sister of the Radiant Heart.

"So, Mister Knopp, am I invited to your coven or not?"


End file.
